An Incredible(s) Story

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Challenge of the Superfriends

With few exceptions, movie-licensed games are usually phoned-in messes built almost entirely without the support of the film studio and on the philosophy that the name will be enough to sell the game. This isn't the case, however, with THQ, Pixar, and their movie/game collaboration on The Incredibles. They're trying to smash the perception that "licensed-game" equals "crap" by doing something few movie studios have done before -- actually work closely with the guys making the game.

Although THQ's first Pixar-licensed game, Finding Nemo, was a commercial success, THQ's licensing deal was inked rather late in the film's four-year long production cycle. As a result, an external studio (UK-based Traveler's Tales) wound up making the game. But with The Incredibles, THQ-owned developer Heavy Iron Studios was able to work directly with Pixar fairly early on in the film's evolution. The Incredibles marks the first time that the game studio worked directly with one of the top creative minds from the movie -- Mark Andrews, the head of story for the film, worked as the liaison for the game.

"My role was to get the look and the vision of the movie into the game," says Andrews. "We gave Heavy Iron color scripts from the movie and a lot of art, and I went over all of the character dialogue that was scripted specifically for the game."

That's Incredible!

For the uninitiated, The Incredibles movie is the sixth computer-generated feature from Pixar and the first CGI undertaking by Brad Bird (The Iron Giant). At a press event for THQ's videogame debut at Pixar's beautiful Emeryville, CA studio (a place few members of the media or public are allowed to enter), Bird was on hand to explain his vision of the film -- a combination, he says, of all the elaborate elements of the old Disney films and the modern sensibility of shows like The Simpsons. He calls the movie "a gumbo of all the stuff I loved as a kid crossed with family values, evil villains, diabolical women, and cool vehicles."

The movie follows the lives of the Parr family -- Bob, Helen, and their three kids, Violet, Dash, and Jack Jack -- a band of superheroes who have been forced into retirement and relocated to the suburbs in the wake of a wave of lawsuits filed by people they'd saved. When Bob is given the chance to don his suit again and forgo the boring life of an insurance claims specialist, he jumps at the opportunity, only to fall into a trap that requires the rest of the family to save him.

The PG-rated movie (a first for Pixar) offers a fresh blend of superhero action, humor and drama, which allowed Heavy Iron to cater the game to an older demographic than Finding Nemo.

As is often the case with great movie experiences, fans crave more than the 90-plus minutes of on-screen action. The Incredibles game offers the chance to take control of these superheroes and explore new areas of the central locale -- Nomanisan Island.

"A three to five-minute scene in the movie might make up 30 minutes of gameplay in a level," says Shiraz Akmal, director of development for Heavy Iron Studios. "We want players to take control of these colorful characters and play through the experiences from the film, but also take a look around the corner and through that door that wasn't in the movie."

The third-person perspective action game allows players to take control of the four members of the Parr family. Akmal said that each level has been tailored to a particular family member, allowing that superhero plenty of opportunity to use his or her abilities. About 60 percent of the game focuses on the brute strength of Mr. Incredible, while the remaining 40 percent is divided among the four other superheroes. Elastigirl has the ability to swing from place to place using her arms and she can squeeze into small areas undetected; Dash can run faster than that other superhero (like The Flash). And Violet can use her ability to generate a force-field to get through a variety of situations.

"In one level of the game, Mr. Incredible picks up a turret and uses it against his enemies," says Lyle Hall, general manager of Heavy Iron. "We're trying to capture the big cinematic moments and let you play them instead of watching them."

Anne Moore, interactive project manager at Pixar, says this game is the first true partnership between Pixar and a game company -- the development involved a constant interaction between the makers of the film and the game developers. One of the contract animators from the movie was eventually hired on at Heavy Iron to continue his work in game form.

"Pixar movies are all about the details and we focused on the details for the game," says Akmal. "There was a lot of e-mail correspondence where we swapped animated files from the movie and the game."

Ben Butcher, a creative resources artist at Pixar, adds that character is crucial to all Pixar films, and it was important for the game to focus on this. "There are a lot of things that we've captured from the film," says Butcher, "subtleties that will help you identify with these characters."

A Matter of Time

The creation of a CGI film takes about four years of hard work, but Heavy Iron's game was built on a 20-month development schedule -- less than half of that of the film. Even so, when the game studio came aboard and began working with Pixar, all that had been finished was a basic story in extremely rough form with scratch voice-over.

"We were able to watch the entire movie in storyboard crayon still frames from beginning to end to get a sense of where the film was going," says Hall. "But we didn't have final animations or even character costumes or specifics of their super powers when we began."

Akmal explains that his studio, which also created THQ's SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie game, had plenty of opportunity to create new areas, original objects, and new enemies that didn't exist in the movie world.

"The trick is to keep everything integrated into the movie world and retain the style and color schemes," says Andrews, who personally oversaw every item in the game. In the case of some of the enemies, the game gave Pixar a chance to see original ideas in action.

"We were able to incorporate things in the game that we had talked about, but ultimately couldn't fit into the movie," says Andrews. "We gave Heavy Iron our sketches for additional henchmen and they worked on those and added new robot bad guys to the game. The process worked back and forth as their artists drew sketches and then I revised them."

Other synergies added to the game. The original musical score was done by Michael Giacchino, the same composer Pixar hired for the film. Fifteen minutes of movies clips bridge the story between game levels, and the voice actors from film (including Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter, and Jason Lee -- but no Craig T. Nelson, alas) also help bridge the game between computer-generated film and computer-generated game.

Infinity and Beyond

It looks like THQ and Pixar will be working together for quite some time, having extended their videogame licensing relationship beyond next fall's Cars to include the next three CG films. The film, which will be directed by Pixar founder John Lasseter, features the voices of Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, and Owen Wilson, to include the next three computer-animated films.

Andrews, who enjoys playing games, believes this gap between Hollywood and games will continue to narrow over time, especially with new consoles headed to store shelves over the next two years. He said the major difference between CGI film and game development today is time. Pixar has the luxury of four years to focus on a 90-minute feature. Andrews compared that to 20 months for a game studio, which has to create 15 hours or more of gameplay and story.

"I'm impressed with the graphics that new games are showing, but I think the next big leap for games is to imbue these adventures with character and story," said Andrews. "That's what we focus on in films...once games can push that envelope, look out!"

-- John Gaudiosi